Enhanced Chat Functionality Arrives on Google's Gemini Platform - Free and Popular Options Now Available

Enhanced Chat Functionality Arrives on Google’s Gemini Platform - Free and Popular Options Now Available

Prompt: Can you create an image of a fall day in Central Park?

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET via ImageFX

At Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O , the company announced new features for its AI chatbot, Gemini -- positioning it to better compete against its popular rival, ChatGPT . The features are finally rolling out to Gemini three months later, and users can get started today.

Also: The best AI image generators of 2024: Tested and reviewed

On Wednesday, Google announced that Imagen 3 image generation is rolling out to Gemini, Gemini Advanced (Google’s premium paid tier) , Business, and Enterprise users. Gems, a customizable AI assistant within Gemini, is also rolling out to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users.

Imagen 3

The image generation capabilities in Gemini will be upgraded from Imagen 2 to Imagen 3, Google’s latest and most advanced image generation model. With the upgrade, users will experience higher image quality when generating images from the Gemini AI chatbot, which they can do by asking the chatbot to generate a picture of whatever they’d like.

Also: Google says its Imagen 3 AI image generator beats DALL-E 3. How to try it for yourself

Recently, Google DeepMind published a report that evaluated Imagen 3’s performance against its predecessor, Imagen 2, and other leading external models, including DALL-E 3 , Midjourney v6, Stable Diffusion 3 Large, and Stable Diffusion XL 1.0.

In the human evaluation overall preference category, which measured how satisfied a user was with the image compared to the input prompt, Imagen 3 won by a significant lead. I have also been continually impressed with the high-quality images rendered by ImageFX, Google’s standalone image generator powered by Imagen 3, such as the image at the top of the article. If you are interested in trying ImageFX, getting started is easy .

Generating high-quality images in Gemini for free is a significant advantage of using the Gemini chatbot, as generating images in ChatGPT using DALL-E 3 requires a $20 monthly subscription to ChatGPT Plus .

Google also shared that the integration of Imagen 3 into Gemini has built-in safeguards and Synth-ID, which watermarks AI-generated images to designate that they were generated using AI.

Also: In search of the foolproof AI watermark

In the coming days, Google will also roll out the ability to generate images of people. However, early access versions will be available first to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users in English. This feature has some limitations, including the generation of identifiable individuals and minors and violent, gory, or sexual scenes.

Gems

At Google I/O, Google announced Gems , which are customized versions of Gemini for tackling particular tasks. To set up a Gem, a user simply has to give it an instruction, name it, and use it when needed to perform a specific function.

The feature is nearly identical to ChatGPT’s custom GPTs, which can also be instructed to perform a function, be named, and shared with others. These features save users time in the long run, especially with repetitive tasks, because they allow them to skip instructions every single time.

Also: Two ways you can build custom AI assistants with GPT-4o - and one is free!

Google shares some possible Gem use cases, including customizing it to become a coding partner, writing editor, career guide, and learning coach. This feature is rolling out on desktop and mobile to Gemini Advanced, Gemini Business, and Gemini enterprise users in more than 30 languages and 150 countries.

Creating custom assistants is a paid feature on both ChatGPT and Gemini. However, if you are looking for a way to do it for free, You.com allows users to create custom assistants using many of the market’s most popular large language models (LLMs).